Something I read today makes me wonder about the US motives. On the Yahoo news they had a story that was an unconfirmed report that Pakistan had aprehended bin Laden. I have no idea if that's true or not, so take it with a grain of salt. The "official" that said they had him said that Pakistan would release an official statement after the US had officially launched a war. It makes me wonder if we're doing this because we made a bargain with Pakistan. In order to get their cooperation for hunting down bin Laden, we have to depose Hussein.

Or maybe the families of the terrorists that struck New York and Washington DC are exempt. I'm not a war monger but neither am I naive enough to think that Saddam Hussein is an innocent in any terrorist activity.

Saddam is guilty of many atrocities, as are quite a few other countries and their leaders/dictators. Does that mean we take them all on and bully the entire world into complying with OUR way of life and thinking?

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

I've read this thread carefully, and there seems common agreement that Saddam is a personification of evil, in a similar way to Hitler or Stalin in their time. Neither has anyone wished anything but a safe swift homecoming for the soldiers fighting him. Now that war has started, I'd like to add something. Things look different from here.

(Very quick background): We are a tiny island beside England, and not in NATO.

Northern Ireland has suffered real daily terrorism, non-stop for 30 years. This has spilt over into both England and down here in the Republic of Ireland. It has impacted on every aspect of our socities - economic, social, political. We had become used to it sub-consciously so that it no longer seemed to impinge on daily lives. More people were murdered by terrorism on these islands than in all the terror murders in the USA combined. It was a filthy hopeless and endless situation. Then something so wonderful happened - peace.

The USA got involved and worked tirelessly with everyone to change the status quo. It took most of the Clinton presidency to achieve results, and after the peace agreement was settled, the USA wished us well, and left. It also left behind a deep gratitude to, and friendship for America. We could not have hurt more for the victims of 9/11 were the twin towers in downtown Dublin. England is now our close friend and their government is liked a lot here.

So why did over 100,000 people march through my city to protest against this war? Why are there candle lit vigils outside the USA and English embassies tonight? Why is my government being lambasted for allowing the US airforce refuel here?

I think it's because we remember the horrors of our recent history. And, if you'll forgive me, it's not the dead that upset so much, but the living.

Inconsolable children, terrified, unable to sleep without medication, and there's no medication. Gut wrenching fear and suspicion of the unknown. Hopelessness for the future. Deep depression and endless sadness. Untreatable illness. No self-respect. No chance of being able to consider those things in our lives which WOW messageboards illustrate are so important for us. This is the tip of the iceberg for the Iraqi survivors of this war. And Bush's presidency will reach a peace agreement with Iraq, wish them well, and leave.

I feel that the cost for Iraq will be desperate. And the loss of international support for the USA's foreign policy, coupled with the shattering of the international community will make all our futures less secure. Americans Bush

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I would rather entreat thy company, to see the wonders of the world abroad - Two gents of Verona

"That's nice, Mom," writes Army Maj. David Floyd. "Just keep protesting as long as you keep sending food."

The exchange occurred two weeks ago, but similar lighthearted correspondence flies back and forth between mother and son nearly every day.

Their banter masks many things: His true feelings about his mother's anti-war protests, her deepening dread about what could happen to her son the longer the war drags on.

Floyd, a 44-year-old reservist from Birmingham, Ala., is a surgeon's assistant with the Army's 3rd Medical Command. His family knows only the bare details about his deployment, that he is based in Camp Doha, Qatar, that he flies into the battlefields of Iraq to treat the wounded -- Iraqis as well as Americans.

Brown bursts with pride when she talks of her son's work. He's saving people, not killing them, she says.

But she cannot bear to watch the television images of smoldering buildings and burning oil-fields without wondering if David is near them. She wonders if he is getting any sleep. She worries about chemical weapons.

"Please wear your goggles and your gas mask every time you go out," she chides in an e-mail. "Don't breathe those fumes."

She can't stop thinking about the images of death and suffering he will carry in his head when the war ends.

And so, every day she gathers up her banners and marches to one of the busiest intersections in town, Cobbs Corner, where she brandishes her son's photograph and pleads with anyone who will listen: "My son is in the army in Iraq. Please stop this war and bring him home."

She knows that many who wave and honk see only a mother's pain.

Others see street theater. To attract attention, Brown dresses in the flowing skirts and white bonnet of a Pilgrim. She waves a colonial flag in addition to anti-war banners.

And some just see another protester who would be opposed to any war.

In a sense, Brown is all these things, this tiny 65-year-old woman with her beatific face, who crams in as many protests as possible, between picking one grandson up from high school track practice and cooking dinner for another.

But she is more.

For years, Brown worked as a software designer, writing encryption software for defense contractor Raytheon Corp. and other companies. She is proud of her computer expertise, proud of contributing to her nation's defense system, especially proud of the top-secret security clearance she held.

She is equally proud of her family's military service.

Her father was in the Coast Guard Reserve. In World War II, one uncle fought in the Battle of the Bulge, another at Iwo Jima, a third in the Solomon Islands.

"You couldn't belong to a military family prouder than ours," Brown says.

So it was natural for her son to join the service too -- and for him to thrive. He loved the marksmanship, the camaraderie, the weekends training with his unit.

Neither mother nor son ever expected him to go to war.

Scheduled to retire in April after 20 years, Floyd told his mother he had seen enough misery in Afghanistan to want to get out. Among other missions on his six-month posting in Kabul, he was one of the medics who treated the Canadians killed and wounded by an American bomber in a friendly fire incident.

Upon his return, Floyd said he was ready to settle back home with his wife and two young daughters and resume civilian life as a nurse at the Cooper Green hospital in Birmingham.

But with the call-up for Iraq duty, he was sent to a war zone again.

His latest deployment terrified his mother. And it convinced her that after years of "sideline" protesting for all sorts of causes _ going back to anti-segregation and Vietnam war protests -- it was time for her to get more deeply involved.

"I was a coward," Brown says, "until my son was sent to the front."

And so she threw herself into civil disobedience courses where she learned tips from veteran protesters: Never touch a police officer, hide small items of food in your clothing, write a lawyer's number in permanent ink on your arm.

She joined peace groups, including an Internet one called Military Families Speak Out. She started speaking at rallies, doing local radio interviews. She became a plaintiff in a lawsuit -- since dismissed -- charging that President Bush had illegally declared war without the proper consent of Congress.

But she also participated in town efforts to support the troops, going door-to-door on drives to collect war-bound goodies, and attending a town meeting to graciously accept a small symbolic flag from a veterans association. The flag, red and white with a blue star in the center, was presented to all 35 families in this town of 20,000 who have members in the military. It hangs in her front window near another small flag with the words "Stop the Slaughter."

Last month, when Bush delivered his final 48-hour deadline to Saddam Hussein, Brown decided it was time to prove she had the courage of her convictions.

At a March 19 rally in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal building in Boston, she joined dozens of protesters who blocked the entrance. In her Pilgrim outfit, Brown lay limply on the ground, eyes closed, arms crossed over her chest. It took four officers to carry her to the police van, where, along with 11 other women, she was handcuffed and whisked off to jail to be booked on charges of disorderly conduct.

"Getting arrested," Brown says, "was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life -- and the most exhilarating."

For the first time in her protesting career she had the strange sensation of being in battle herself, of being part of a unified force with a singular mission.

"I felt like a soldier in a campaign," she says. "And I thought, I'm doing what David is doing. I'm fighting a war."

Awaiting trial, she plans to take her lawyer's advice not to get arrested again until it is over.

But she still goes to rallies whenever she can. She still pickets outside recruitment centers. She still stands on Cobbs Corner every day with her flowing skirts and beaming smile, and the banner that says "Bring my son home."

And she still sends daily e-mails to her son, filling him in on her latest exploits, sending him photographs of her arrest.

From a tent in the desert comes his response:

"I'm sharing your picture with everyone. Most are not impressed until I tell them that the cookies are from you."

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Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it. -- Pope John Paul II